Stem cell restrictions slow few companies

DE FOREST, Wis. — The world's largest herd of cloned cows grazes peacefully in lush fields here, where scientists at a company called Infigen Inc. are using stem cell technology in research aimed at finding treatments for diabetes and other diseases.

The company uses animal cells and adult human cells, but avoids research involving human embryos--the flash point of a national debate on stem cells that has gone on for months.

Michael Bishop, president of Infigen, talked with his board of directors about using human embryos for research after it became possible in 1998. The answer was an emphatic no.

"Anything involving a human embryo was unacceptable," Bishop said. "Around the company, many employees would feel uncomfortable with that."

Lost in the debate over embryonic stem cell research, for which President Bush has allowed limited federal funding, is the fact that scientists and biotechnology companies have many other avenues of research still open to them.

Only a handful of companies, in fact, are working on embryonic stem cells. There are many other sources of stem cells, and most of the tiny companies that are leading the way in the research say they will not be affected by Bush's limits.

At Infigen, for example, some research is devoted to reprogramming adult human cells to devolve into stem cells, which in theory at least can then be manipulated to create new and healthy tissue within the body. Infigen is using the genetic expertise it gained in cloning dozens of cows and pigs.

At Aastrom Biosciences Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich., scientists are developing a way to use an individual's own blood or other tissue to produce new stem cells that can be given back as a therapy. Such work involves adult stem cells, which appear somewhat less versatile than embryonic stem cells, experts say.

One use might be to rebuild the immune systems of people undergoing chemotherapy. The idea is to develop stem cells that are accepted by the body with no risk of rejection.

Aastrom's research, the company is quick to note, isn't controversial. "There are no moral issues with what we do," said Audrey Hutter, vice president of market operations for Aastrom. "We have products that don't offend anyone."

In other research, the company is working on developing stem cells from blood derived from the umbilical cords of newborn infants. Cord blood contains a relatively high number of stem cells, though researchers have found it difficult to grow those cells into the quantities necessary to treat adults.

Geron Corp. of Menlo Park, Calif., is widely regarded as the early leader in commercial stem cell development. It was Geron that funded research at the University of Wisconsin at Madison that led to a breakthrough in the understanding of stem cells in 1998. Geron has said it has an exclusive right to the commercial use of certain cell lines. But a subsidiary of the university has gone to court to dispute that claim, and negotiations are under way to resolve the dispute.

Geron already has used stem cells to produce nerve cells and heart muscle cells and has made advances in manipulating stem cells to produce other kinds of tissue. The company's early lead, Geron chief executive Thomas Okarma told Science magazine in February 2000, comes from "being smart and lucky."

Geron executives, who declined to be interviewed last week, said in a statement that the company's use of embryonic stem cells would not be affected by Bush's limits on federal funding. Geron is working to develop therapies for chronic liver and heart disease.

Controversy hard to escape

While some firms aren't using embryos for their research, neither are they able to entirely skirt the controversy over research involving human tissue.

A spokesman for StemCells Inc., for example, said the company is using stem cells derived from aborted fetuses. He declined to be quoted by name.

StemCells, of Palo Alto, Calif., also is using adult stem cells with research focused on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury and other neural disorders.

Advanced Cell Technology of Worcester, Mass., plans to clone human embryos to harvest stem cells. But the U.S. House of Representatives recently voted to ban the practice and Bush supports such a law. "We recoil at the idea of growing human beings for spare body parts," Bush said in a televised address Aug. 9 that laid out his policy.

Some companies have made a point of stating their own bioethical opposition to embryonic cell research. Deerfield, Ill.-based medical product giant Baxter International Inc. believes research and development that uses human fetal tissue and human embryos "is wrong," a company spokeswoman said.